Friday, May 20, 2011

what I'm reading now

Hard Laughter was a quick read. I decided to read some of Anne Lamott's books after reading this quote in a magazine: "Part of me loves and respects men so desperately, and part of me thinks they are so embarrassingly incompetent at life and in love. You have to teach them the very basics of emotional literacy. You have to teach them how to be there for you, and part of me feels tender toward them and gentle, and part of me is so afraid of them, afraid of any more violation."   Hard Laughter is a novel about a young woman and the family she loves. It covers an emotionally wrenching time for the family members when their father is diagnosed and treated for a brain tumor. Ms. Lamott reveals insight into the human condition as she creates believable yet eccentric characters who are trying to make their way through life the best way they can.

1 comment:

Steven said...

Some more on her (Anne) fear of men; I was just now reading 'Dynamic Islam' a doctoral dissertation by Jon Armajani and he includes works by various Islamic intellectual scholars, including Fatima Mernissi, who writes "And American women are terrorized by men physically. I think I felt that fear for the first in this country (the USA) and I have never felt that in the Arab world." She wrote this in the early 70's while a Ph.D student at Brandeis. She was in her early 30's at the time.
I was startled and embarrassed when I read that. But then, after some soul searching, I could see her point clearly. America is a violent society.